Mindfulness seems to have become a type of buzzword in the health community over the past few years, but what is mindfulness exactly? The easiest way I have found to describe mindfulness is as follows – mindfulness is systematic attentional training and it is a psychological and scientific technique.

There is a growing body of scientific literature showing that when people practice systematic attentional training, or mindfulness, they experience desirable changes in their sense of well-being, in their ability to manage difficult emotions and in handling challenging situations in life. Because many people’s experience with mindfulness is positive, in that the practice of mindfulness produces the sought-after results, mindfulness is increasingly becoming recognized for what it can do.

So, what can mindfulness do for you? The short answer is, a lot, especially if you’re working with a licensed mental health practitioner.

Generally speaking, mindfulness is focusing attention on an object or thought and when the mind wanders away to something else, you consciously bring attention back to the thought or object being focused on. With practice, the ability to specifically focus attention and shut down unrelated thoughts boosts things like creativity, productivity, creates feelings of relaxation and provides the capacity to think through complicated or complex feelings without becoming overwhelmed. There are also many variations of mindfulness making it easier to adapt to your own needs.

In a professional therapeutic environment, psycho-sensory techniques - particularly Havening®, encapsulate the potential for healing by combining thoughts, attention, touch and imagination to accomplish a wide array of outcomes such as:

Decrease emotional reactivity while broadening and building capacity to respond to challenge and adapt to change

Boost performance in sports, business, as well as creative and performing arts

Mitigate the emotional roots of chronic pain

Subdue present-moment emotional discomfort

Our minds are incredibly complex and have the ability to enable us to lead amazing lives. In our fast-paced culture with increasing pressures and stresses coming at us in every direction, our minds can become overloaded. And this is without us experiencing trauma, abuse or any other significant overwhelming events.

Gaining skills to help regulate the overload of information and overwhelm of emotion which most of us experience at least at some point in our lives, and others experience regularly, grants us the ability to move through life with less stress, which in turn allows us to maintain a better sense of balance in our physical bodies, with our emotions and thoughts.

Whether you are already experienced at practicing mindfulness, or a total beginner, it has something to offer to everyone. Talk to a licensed mental health professional to find out how mindfulness can help you specifically.